Maybe my attitude today is what it is because it's Friday and this has been a long week… but the more things change, it seems, the more they stay the same. Here, for example, is a news release from a web design and SEO firm helping Auction Direct USA Used Vehicle Superstore gain an online presence. There's not a single live link in the entire snooze release. So if you stumble upon the news release and decide you want to go see Auction Direct USA for example, you have to copy the address and paste it into your browser. You know what… that's just enough of an inconvenience that tons of readers will decide they are actually not that interested. Meanwhile, if you're an online SEO web design new age social media hip cool consultancy, wouldn't you have to agree that not having live links in a news release about yourself is akin to acting like a plumber living in a house with no running water. Hello?

Do you like the last line of the release as much as I do?

For even more information, please visit… blah blah blah.

Even more?

I'll be better by Monday.

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FEMA is the Federal Emergency Management Agency. It might also stand for FEeble Media Attempt after last week's pretend briefing during which FEMA people sat around lofting softballs at one another while the press listened only. Here's a news item about it.

Ordinarily I'd give them the benefit of the doubt. You know, just a stupid mistake, right? It was a hastily called briefing, no real media types showed up. Some called in. But note the reporters who called in were limited to a 'listen-only' line. Heck, why would you want to have a press briefing at which reporters could ask questions, right? It's so much more fun to ask your own questions, give your own answers, don't ask the media to chime in and don't tell anyone what's going on. FEMA did the asking and the answering. It's like debating yourself– you always win!

By the way, if I'm a reporter and I can't ask questions and I'm given a listen-only option, I'm going to dial tone.

Washington these days slays me. Just when you think they've reached the height of stupidity or arrogance or willful manipulation, they find ever more new and creative ways of making themselves look silly.

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To date, Facebook has predominantly been a personal social network. That, however, hasn’t stopped businesses and their proactive marketing teams from adapting its existing features to suit their networking and promotional needs. As their own networks of business contacts grow friend by friend, so too does the site’s B2B community as a whole, and the opportunity for interactive marketers to target it.

Many say Facebook shouldn’t be used for business or professional networking because it’s a personal social networking site. They say personal and professional spheres shouldn’t be mixed – a sentiment with which I agree wholeheartedly.

But think of it this way: if you haven’t started using Facebook yet, that’s a non-issue for you. You don’t have any personal relationships in Facebook, so you have a blank slate. There is nothing to mix with your professional or business relationships.

You could use Facebook for purely professional reasons, and keep the personal business out of it.

The things you put into your profile, the applications you choose to add and the friends that you seek and accept are up to you.

There are lots of great potential uses for Facebook in business networking…without crossing the line.

Click here to be added to our Facebook friends.

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